Going to put a few phone poles on my diorama. Ordered the Berkshire Junction E-Z Line as I wanted to see how this works, seemed to have good reviews. Also bought the Rix telephone cross arms, but the LHS was out of the poles.... SO, I bought a wood dowel. My first questions is, for my 50’s era set-up how approximately how tall should I make the poles? I purchased the small diameter green line and the larger charcoal line thinking that I would combine phone and power on one pole. Would this work?
Loco wrote: My first questions is, for my 50’s era set-up how approximately how tall should I make the poles? Thanks in advance
My first questions is, for my 50’s era set-up how approximately how tall should I make the poles?
Thanks in advance
When I was a child in the 1960's most of the poles 'round here were 30 footers (35' with five in the ground). All of the new ones are 40 footers. There are still a lot of very old ones around. Even a few that look to be only 20-25 feet and rather thin. There is an old telegraph pole in my yard 35 feet above ground. It used to have around eight crossarms and dates from the early 1920's. The one that it replaced and a second much taller pole are shown in a 1900 photo.
Click here for context. This was before they added crossarms and raised the shorter poles.
I hope this helps.
Karl
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
I have some plastic poles made by Model Power. They are roughly 3 13/16" high, plus you will want to tack on about a half inch to stick in the "ground." The top crossarm will be about 1/8' from the top of the pole, and each consecutive crossarm will be spaced 3/16" apart- with 1/4" angle supports going from the center of the poles to each crossarm.
Not sure about the wires, though.
Hopes this is some help.
Loco,
There's also a very informative article in the 2006 issue of How to Build Realistic Layouts about line poles that you might find handy. The article is on pg. 30-33 and is called "Stringing details in the sky". I thought it was very well done.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Ok, I feel a tad embarrassed. I opened up the Rix bag of cross arms and on the back of the cardboard insert is a rather complete set of instructions, hits for painting, gluing, as well how to place the poles on your layout! Kudos Rix. And also for the quick replies :o)
Loco wrote: Ok, I feel a tad embarrassed. I opened up the Rix bag of cross arms and on the back of the cardboard insert is a rather complete set of instructions, hits for painting, gluing, as well how to place the poles on your layout! Kudos Rix. And also for the quick replies :o)
When all esle fails, read the instructions, eh?
George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
Those short poles were most likely the telephone, telegraph. signal, and Western Union circuits. That is why there are so many cross arms and insulators. They were strung with bare copper wires, which attained the bluish green patina that is formed on copper by exposure to the elements which is why they looked green. They were strung on greenish or clear insulators and usually followed the terrain, up and over the ridge when the track was in cuts, etc. They had tin medallions nailed to them to identify which circuits were on each crossarm.
The New Haven also had another set on the opposite side trhat carried differant circuits, possibly the signaling.
Testors (the little glass model bottles) has a metallic green that works well for insulators too. The metallic particles are really fine and give it a nice reflective property without looking like "sparkles" !!!
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ